Without question, my favorite road maps from the early 1900s are the strip maps published by the Automobile Club of Southern California (ACSC), whose cartographic work was of such high quality that it would be considered superior in any generation. The Auto Club was founded in 1900 and reportedly began charting and mapping the roads of Southern California in 1906. According to one web site, the first tour book and strip maps were published in 1912. By the 1920s, ACSC strip maps would be directing tourists as far away as the east coast.

One of the most collectible map sets featured the Lincoln Highway from Omaha to Chicago and Philadelphia. Other parts of the Lincoln Highway were covered under different headings. This particular set consisted of 24 strip maps, including two which were spur routes into Chicago. A total of six maps were needed to cover the route across Ohio, and all are reproduced at this site. Although this map set does not show any copyright date, it was most likely published in late 1920 or early 1921, based on the fact that the Lincoln Highway route is shown passing through Galion and not through Crestline. That route change was made official in December 1920, eighteen months after the coming of the U.S. Army's Transcontinental Motor Convoy had instigated a revision which took Ada and Lima off the route in favor of Williamstown and Beaverdam.

Like the Lincoln Highway Association maps of 1918, I received these map images several years after preparing A History and Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway in Ohio. Thus, there are again some minor route variations which are not covered in that work. One variation is an extra set of turns in Upper Sandusky that includes Finley Street, and another variation is the use of State Street (not Main Street) to negotiate the jog from Second Street to Fifth Street in Delphos. This is the only reference that I have ever seen which shows those unusual turning movements.

These map images are courtesy of Lincoln Highway Association member David Cole of Santa Maria, California.